fed up of google-ing symptoms

[MONKEE_MAGIK]

Hi all,

I'm sure I am not the only one here but I seem to be spending alot of time recently searching google for possible causes of the symptoms I have.

I have had chronic pain in my left shoulder and now in my neck. I have been to my dr's several times and I have had several tests done. My heart is fine, blood tests are fine. Neurologically I am fine. The dr thinks I am suffering chronic muscle spasms and that I have costochondritis which causes the chest pain.

The pain seems to be getting worse and sometimes I find it hard to sleep at night due to the pain in my neck. There is also a lump at the back of my neck that the dr says is just a muscle knot.

Sometimes I get panic attacks in the night as I am so scared I have cancer or something else awful.

I think that the anxiety is making the shoulder and neck pain worse as I am so tense all of the time.

Do any of you have similar problems caused by anxiety and do you have any suggestions for curbing the urge to google for causes of illness symptoms?

[nickieb]

Monkee

Honey firstly try not to Google, i know its hard as you need reassurance but it really just makes us more anxious as we are led to believe we have something serious.

I can almost bet my bottom dollar the pain you are having in your neck & shoulders is what us common anxiety sufferers all get- its very common.This pain is from being so anxious & tense it causes the muscles & nerves to clench tight & restrict causing lack of blood flow resulting in pain. Today as i am not feeling great mine are absolutely killing me & hurts to turn my head. When the pain gets this bad we know we are stressed out......

The only cure is to actually de-stress which i know is easier said than done so in the meantime try Radian B rub (works the best i have found), lavender oils & obviously massages & relaxation- they all help a lot...
Try & avoid poor posture- again hard when you are tensed up & stressed, also try & lie flat in bed at night ensuring your head is level with your body, thus preventing your neck & shoulders from being bent.

You really don't have anything serious hun its all part of anxiety.

Go to anxietycentre.com & look at the anxiety symptoms page it will open your eyes.

Best Wishes xxxxxxxxxxx

[kellie]

Plz plz try to not google hun
it will only make you feel worse
Ive been there and got the t shirt for it :D

when you have questions about symptoms do a post on here and we will answer you as soon as we can.

[Cathy V]

Hi MM, and i agree with everything thats been said so far, and the pain is prob getting worse as you anx levels get worse. Have you ever thought about massage? here in germany they are really into it and the doctors actually pescribe it if its needed, as in the patient doesnt pay for it if the doc pescribes it! I know it might not be possible for you to have massages on a regular basis because of costs but if you can afford to do it, it might be worth a try to release the tension.

Take care
Cathy xxx

[LeeBee]

Hey monkee, it's hard to resist the google temptation, isn't it! A couple of tips that have helped me a bit. Someone else on NMP once said that they never google symptoms without including the word 'anxiety' in their search, so they see how their symptoms could just as easily be anxiety as anything else. Another tip is only to google actual possible ailments rather than just symptoms - "muscle spasm" or "costochondritis" for example, rather than "sore shoulder, sore chest" which will produce a slew of scary stuff unrelated to what you actually have.

[aliciajane]

As has been said already, google is definitely not the way to go.
Because of google I convinced myself I had lung cancer, mouth cancer and bowel cancer, and after being checked out thoroughly I obviously have none of them, and was silly to think so!
Google's not a doctor, and will only get you worked up for no reason.
So try not to do it :)
Take care,
x

[Laylag]

I too am obsessed with googling my symptoms,its so hard to stop though and when you do search you end up feeling so much worse.